Pre-Class Preparation

CAES suggests four subsections to prime your students for your class:

• Description: the purpose of this subsection is to gain the attention of the learner. Consider a case study to introduce a general problem relevant to the lesson and outline how the lesson will help solve the problem. Your description could be text, but you could introduce the case study and lesson overview in a video or combine a video case study with textual description of the lesson.

• Learning outcomes: the purpose of this subsection is to communicate to the learner the specific skills and knowledge that they will gain from the lesson. If the lesson has a deliverable or is working toward a deliverable, consider itemizing how the lesson will contribute to that deliverable.

• Share: the purpose of this subsection is to allow the student to tap and share their prior knowledge. Sharing may be private such as a personal reflection of a similar encounter with the problem outlined in the description. This reflection may be limited to the instructor or be entirely personal and shared only on “paper”. Sharing may be extended to the learning community that the class has established. An example may be a forum post. Or sharing may extend beyond the class and the student could be invited to converse with an industry professional on a platform such as LinkedIn. In this context, the student could share questions with that professional based on their existing experience.

• Readings and resources: the purpose of this subsection is to further prime the student for the virtual session. Consider not only the readings, but discussion prompts and questions that students should bring to those readings. You may also wish to direct students markup readings using a social annotation tool. Students could share a real life example when a concept in the reading applied to them, they could “star” a concept that they would like to discuss in class, or begin answering the prompts in the reading. This section may also present an opportunity to provide materials in other formats, such as videos, podcasts and simulations, so that students are presented with variety. It is suggested that all materials are contextualized with discussion prompts so that relevance is presented to students.

In-Class Workshop

Post-Class Reflection

The Post-Class Reflection may include up to two subsections.

• Reflections: If you use exit slips in your class, you could consider providing your students with a second chance to complete the form. Alternatively, in a project-based class, students may be required to maintain a reflection journal. This journal may reflect more on their learning and progress in the context of the project than the class. In this case, you may order the reflection so that it follows the assessments subsection.

• Assessments: Often sessions or groups of sessions work toward a deliverable. To close out the learning process, assign the deliverable and provide materials to scaffold the successful completion of that deliverable such as model answers, worked examples, assessment rubrics and relevant handouts.

Note: The assessment tool provides the opportunity to contextualize assessments and describe their requirements.

Structuring Worksheet

To learn more about building a course, please attend a NEXUS webinar that can be found on the Training and Support page.